The hit: half-ball to third-ball

The hit on the first object ball sets the cue ball's direction for the rest of the shot. Some thicknesses forgive small errors; others magnify them. Choose shots that let you hit the first ball somewhere between half-ball and third-ball.

Thickness

Thickness is how much of the object ball the cue ball covers at contact. A full hit is straight on. A half-ball hit aims the cue ball's centre at the object ball's edge. A third-ball hit covers a third of it. Thinner still is a feather, barely touching.

Why the half-ball hit is special

When a rolling cue ball strikes an object ball, it deflects off at an angle that depends on the thickness. For thick hits that angle changes quickly: a little fuller or a little thinner and the cue ball goes somewhere quite different. Around a half-ball hit the angle reaches its largest, about 30 to 34 degrees, and close to a maximum it hardly changes at all. Between roughly a three-quarter-ball and a quarter-ball hit, a rolling cue ball leaves at nearly the same angle.

In practice: an error of a millimetre in contact, which every player makes, barely moves the cue ball on a half-ball hit, and moves it a lot on a full one.

A half-ball hit: the yellow covers half of the red and leaves at the steady half-ball angle, then goes around the top, right and bottom cushions to the white. With the hit this comfortable, the engine makes it nearly every time. Open this position in the trainer
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Thick hits and feathers

The hit comes first

That's why experts start choosing a shot from the hit. Find a route that lets you strike the first ball between half and third, with a comfortable stroke, and then fit the speed and spin to that hit. A route that needs a perfect feather, or a precise full hit, should lose to one that doesn't.

In the trainer: the ghost ball on the table shows exactly where the cue ball meets the first ball. Watch how often the engine's choice is a half-ball hit.

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